Science of the Total Environment 653 (2019) 294–299

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Short Communication

Delineating the plastic waste status in the State of Qatar: Potential

opportunities, recovery and recycling routes
John N. Hahladakis ⁎, Hareb Mohammed S.J. Aljabri
Qatar University, College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Sustainable Development, P.O. Box: 2713, Doha, Qatar

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Plastic waste presents ample opportuni-

ties for exploitation in the State of Qatar.
• There is a need for proper segregation
units and waste management infra-
structure.
• Existing plastic recovery facilities (PRFs)
sell plastics locally or internationally.
• The demand for recovered plastic in the
State of Qatar is expected to grow.
• The establishment of new PRF units
would be most welcome in the country.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Qatar's national vision (QNV2030) underlines an unequivocal commitment to maintaining harmony between
Received 23 September 2018 the three inter-dependent pillars of sustainable development: economic growth, social development and environ-
Received in revised form 28 October 2018 mental management. Nonetheless, it seems that the country is set on a trajectory of unparalleled and rapid devel-
Accepted 28 October 2018
opment that most waste management and environmental experts would, possibly, characterise as unsustainable;
Available online 30 October 2018
in addition it seems to repeat many of the “errors” that have been made in other parts of the world, including, for
Editor: Damia Barcelo example, a lack of developed recycling and waste management infrastructure. The average Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW) generation rate per capita in the Gulf Co-operation countries (GCC) reaches almost 1.5 kg/person/d, with
Keywords: the State of Qatar being close to 1.4 kg/person/d during the past years, thereby ranking the Gulf States as some of
Circular economy the highest waste generating countries globally. Plastics, accounting for approx. 13–14% of the total MSW (in
Plastic waste these countries), present both a significant amount as well as a valuable resource to be recovered. In the present
Qatar work, the authors attempt to delineate the plastic recovery status, based on the current waste management and
Recovery recycling infrastructure existing and operating in Qatar, outlying the drawbacks, but at the same time highlighting
Recycling
the potential opportunities and benefits in developing the waste management and recovery sector in the country.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abbreviations: AGR, annual growth rate; approx., approximately; BMs, business models; C&D, construction & demolition; ca., circa (Latin term for “approximately” or “about”); CE,
circular economy; DSWMC, Domestic Solid Waste Management Centre; EC, European Commission; GCC, Gulf co-operation countries; GPCA, Gulf petrochemicals and chemicals associa-
tion; HDPE, high-density polyethylene; LDPE, low-density polyethylene; MCPs, materials, components and products; MDPS, Ministry of development planning and statistics; MSW, mu-
nicipal solid waste; PET, polyethylene terephthalate; PP, polypropylene; PRFs, plastic recovery facilities; PS, polystyrene; PVC, polyvinyl chloride; QDB, Qatar development bank; SDGs,
sustainable development goals; UN, United Nations.
⁎ Corresponding author at: College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Sustainable Development, Qatar University, Qatar.
E-mail addresses: ichachladakis@qu.edu.qa, john_chach@yahoo.gr (J.N. Hahladakis).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.390
0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 J.N. Hahladakis, H.M.S.J. Aljabri / Science of the Total Environment 653 (2019) 294–299
1. Introduction
Nowadays, concepts such as waste hierarchy, sustainability, demate-
rialization, Circular Economy (CE), eco-efficiency, etc. are prevalent and
considered of utmost importance for getting the accreditation of be-
coming more ‘green’ (Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2018; Iacovidou
et al., 2017a; Van Ewijk and Stegemann, 2016). Nonetheless, achieving
a truly sustainable and circular waste management sector is a task,
still considered, at an infant stage. According to scientific literature,
most of the complications and barriers that restrict this attempt are
directly affiliated with the technicalities (e.g. lifestyle patterns and be-
haviours, organisational and infrastructural barriers, contamination,
composition, quality and functionality of recovered materials) involved
in the overall recycling and recovering of valuable resources from mate-
rials, components and products (MCPs) (Hahladakis and Iacovidou,
2018; Iacovidou et al., 2017b; Szaky, 2015; Vilaplana and Karlsson,
2008). The action plan of the European Commission (EC) for the CE
aims to ‘close the loop’ by complementing the measures contained in
the legislative proposals and to contribute to meeting the United Na-
tions (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015,
and in particular, Goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production
(European Commission, 2016). Metals, paper, glass and plastics are ma-
terials considered of high recyclability potential, thereby enabling a cir-
cular way of management (European Commission, 2016).
The EC has classified plastics amongst the five priority areas (food
waste, critical raw materials, construction and demolition (C&D) and
biomass and bio-based products being the other four) (European Com-
mission, 2016), where progress needs to be made towards a circular re-
ality, recently launching a relative strategy (European Commission,
2018). Taking into account the explosive growth and bloom of the plas-
tics manufacturing industry, as well as their numerous beneficial prop-
erties (light weight, durability, flexibility, etc.) it has become a necessity
to recycle this type of material in a sound and environmentally benign
manner that will enable us to actually “close the loop” on this sector
(European Commission, 2015; Peeters et al., 2014).
Plastics are generally made of thermoplastic resins and are classified
into 7 categories: the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (known as type
1); high-density polyethylene (HDPE) (known as type 2); polyvinyl
chloride (PVC) (known as type 3); low-density polyethylene (LDPE)
(known as type 4); polypropylene (PP) (known as type 5); polystyrene
(PS) (known as type 6); and others (known as type 7). The latter cate-
gory includes multilayer and other polymer formations that are not
generally collected for recycling (Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2018).
Plastic waste is considered to be an important prerequisite for its di-
version from landfill (Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2018), its prevention
from inappropriate disposal and leakage into the aquatic and terrestrial
environment (Jambeck et al., 2018; Jambeck et al., 2015), and the gener-
ation of a recognizable and acceptable high-quality secondary material
(Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2018; PlasticEurope, 2012; Recoup, 2015).
Although, there is a general agreement that the ‘clean’ fractions of plas-
tic polymers should be recycled, matching the large variety of materials
and substances that constitute plastic waste (and the impurities/con-
taminants it may contain) (Hahladakis et al., 2018; WRAP, 2010) with
the correct combination of available sorting and processing technolo-
gies to deal with them (Kranzinger et al., 2017; Packaging World,
2013), render its effective recycling complex and challenging (Van
Ewijk and Stegemann, 2016; Vilaplana and Karlsson, 2008).
In spite of all the technicalities involved in the efficient and success-
ful recycling of plastics, the low cost of landfilling and the availability of
land in the Gulf Co-operation Countries (GCC), usually old sand or
gravel quarries, make recycling programs unappealing, uneconomical
and, in some cases, unachievable (Alhumoud, 2005; Alhumoud et al.,
2004).
Nonetheless, recognising the need for high quality recycling as an ef-
fort to increase circularity and recovery of resources from waste, via this
short communication article, the authors attempt to delineate the Qatar
295
current status on plastic recovery market and communicate, as well as
highlight, the various benefits from the potential recovery routes of
the plastic fraction existing in the domestic waste stream of Qatar.
2. Overview and discussion on plastic recovery market in the State of
Qatar
2.1. Current plastic consumption and waste generation status in Qatar; fu-
ture projections
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is considered to be one of the most
significant environmental problems that the GCC have to face. Unfortu-
nately, the Gulf region that once recorded an MSW generation of no
more than 300 g/person/d has now become one of the highest solid
waste generators in the world, reaching approx. 1.5 kg/person/d (Al-
Maaded et al., 2012).
Rapid industry development, construction projects, increased mi-
gration, ineffective legislation, nonchalant attitudes and lack of public
environmental awareness, are some of the reasons that have rendered
the waste in Qatar into a liability (Zafar, 2016). Coupled with an inap-
propriate and insufficient waste disposal-collection system and infra-
structure, landfilling is still the preferred choice and predominant
method of waste disposal in the country (Bello, 2018). Despite notewor-
thy global recent advances in the solid waste management sector, that
include both treatment and recycling, the largest fraction of MSW in
Qatar still ends up in dumpsites or is openly burned, emitting carbon
monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2). There is also a significant
fraction of solid waste that, unfortunately, ends up in the marine envi-
ronment, creating various environmental, economic and social impacts
(Brouwer et al., 2017; Depledge et al., 2013).
The collected MSW are transported to various transfer stations and,
in turn, is sent to any of the three purpose-designated landfills (Umm
Al-Afai, for bulky and domestic waste; Rawda Rashed for C&D waste;
and Al-Krana for sewage wastes). The government has also established
a new Domestic Solid Waste Management Centre (DSWMC) to facilitate
processing and recycling of MSW (Bello, 2018).
According to Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association
(GPCA), the plastics consumption in the country, in 2015, was
amounted at approx. 240,000 tonnes (GPCA, 2015), which were distrib-
uted per type of plastic as shown in Fig. 1. In the same year though, the
plastic waste recovered (with the intention to be recycled) was not
more than ca. 30,000 tonnes (thus a mere 12.5% of the amount
consumed).
Plastic waste in the State of Qatar can be found as a fraction a) in the
MSW, collected from households and businesses, or b) in “e-waste”
(lead-acid batteries). The first fraction is considered to be of high mass
percentage and of clean material, since collection is made after segrega-
tion and at source (QDB, 2017). In addition, plastic recovery facilities
(PRFs) in the country usually sign long-term contracts with commercial
establishments to source the plastic waste. It is estimated that plastics
account for approx. 13% of the MSW generated in the country (MDPS,
2014).
As shown in Fig. 2, plastic waste generated in Qatar from 2010 to
2016 exhibited an increase of more than ca. 50,000 tones, witnessing
an annual growth rate (AGR) of ca. 6.7% (MDPS, 2014, 2017). This in-
crease can be attributed to a number of factors, such as: a) the lack of
waste management infrastructure and public awareness in appropriate
waste disposal methods, b) the rapid growth in the country's population
over the last 10 years, c) the lavish lifestyle of people and d) a diverse
range of infrastructure projects in order for the country to fast track its
development plans, especially ahead of the hosting of the 2022 World
Cup (Al-Maaded et al., 2012; Bello, 2018; Clarke and Almannai, 2014;
Clarke et al., 2017; Kader, 2016).
According to the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics
(MDPS) and the Qatar Development Bank (QDB), given the increase in
population and estimations based on: a) the average per capita MSW
296 J.N. Hahladakis, H.M.S.J. Aljabri / Science of the Total Environment 653 (2019) 294–299
Fig. 1. Distribution of plastic products consumption per type of plastic in Qatar, 2015.
(Source: GDPS, 2015)
generated during the past years (1.37 kg/person/d) and b) the percent-
age of plastics fraction in the MSW, it is expected to witness an amount
of plastic waste of approx. 181,896 tonnes and an AGR of ca. 0.8% in the
forthcoming years (2018–2025) (MDPS, 2014, 2017; QDB, 2017). It is
anticipated that governmental and local entities (i.e. Clean Qatar, Go
Green, Say no to plastic bags, etc.) will slow down the plastic waste gen-
eration rate in the years to come, by introducing eco-friendly substitutes
in the market and campaigning their public awareness programs
(DohaNews, 2017; MEP, 2017).
2.2. Plastic recovery and recycling status in Qatar; the role of local recycling
facilities
The most commonly and readily recovered plastics in Qatar are:
a) HDPE (ca. 25%), LDPE & LLDPE (ca. 55%) and PP (15%) and others
(5%) (MDPS, 2014). The aforementioned percentages are reported on
a weight basis of the recovered plastic material. Unfortunately, PET in
not currently recycled in the country although Twyla Recycling com-
pany is expecting to launch relative operations for recovering PET bot-
tles in the form of sheets (QDB, 2017). The difficulties and
implications involved in recycling PVC, PP and PS make these type of
plastics undesirable for recovery centres, as well as any polymers that
are classified under category 7 (others); hence, the small percentages
of these types that are usually recycled.
Following the Qatar 2030 vision and owing to several environmental
concerns, as well as to the economic loss associated with any unrecov-
erable plastic material, the country intends to increase its recycling
rates and reduce the amounts of plastics sent to landfill (GSDP, 2008,
2009). More specifically, Qatar has set up a recycling target of 38% of
Fig. 2. Plastic waste generated from MSW in Qatar (in tonnes).
(Data source: MDPS, 2014)
the country's total MSW by 2030 (GSDP, 2008); a giant leap from the
current figure of 4% (Ayoub et al., 2014; Kader, 2016) or 8% (GSDP,
2008), depending on the sources. This has led to the creation of various
recycling facilities the work and contribution of some of which are
worth mentioned and reported below so as the reader can better under-
stand the waste management and recovery infrastructure, currently
existing and operating in the country:
- Doha Plastic Recycle (a subsidiary of the homonymous parental
company that manufactures HDPE and LDPE pipes) is spread across
a 15 acres area and has a capacity of recycling up to 9,000 tonnes of
HDPE, LDPE and PP of plastic waste via a dedicated pelletizing line
for each polymer type (DohaPlastic, 2018). Large companies like
Qatar Airways, RasGas, QChem, Qatar Petroleum, etc. are regular
contract customers; via several waste management companies,
Doha Plastic Recycle collect their plastic waste. In turn, the recovered
plastic (mostly in pellets form) is either used for in-house produc-
tion or sold in local and international market (DohaPlastic, 2018).
- Twyla recycling is also a large company (spread in approx. 12 acres)
operating since 2014 and has a capacity of collecting up to
4,800 tonnes of plastic waste, the majority of which (ca. 92–95%)
manages to recycle (Twyla, 2018). It collects the waste via company
owned trailers and long-term contracts with Qatar Fuel, QChem, etc.
Polymer types 2, 4 and 5 are recovered in pellet forms whereas type
1 is converted into compressed bales (Twyla, 2018). Some of the re-
covered products are sold to domestic companies (i.e. Petrofoam,
National Plastic) and/or exported to Bahrein, India, Pakistan and
Egypt (Twyla, 2018).
- Asima Plastic Factory (a 15 acres company area with a 9,000 tonnes
plastic bags production via recovered pellets) produces PET sacks
and sheets, plastic vest carriers, bin liners and counter bags
(AsimaPlastic, 2018). As Doha Plastic Recycle does, Asima uses, too,
some of the recovered material for in-house production, while sells
the rest in local or international market (AsimaPlastic, 2018).
There are several other smaller companies like Qatar Plastic Products
and Scrap Centre LLC which collect plastic waste and usually export
them overseas; nonetheless, the aforementioned ones are the most sig-
nificant and recognizable in the country.
2.3. Currently operating plastic recovery business models in the State of
Qatar
Given the number of the aforementioned PRFs and other local busi-
nesses operating in Qatar and taking into consideration the discussion
above, there are 2 district business models (BMs) that are mostly imple-
mented in the country: a) BM 1 (graphically depicted in Fig. 3) and BM 2
(graphically depicted in Fig. 4).
2.3.1. BM 1: recovery of plastic pellets
In this model the sourcing of plastic waste is done in 2 ways: a) by
waste management companies and b) by recovery facilities. Waste
management companies usually collect commingled waste from house-
holds and various other industries operating in the country and then
sort the waste by fractions (organic, plastic, metal, paper, etc.). Via this
way, plastic is separated and sent, in turn, to PRFs. On the other hand,
the recovery facilities can directly source the plastics using the long-
term contracts with the industries. However, the plastics sourced this
way may contain impurities (other non-plastic material) and, therefore,
further manual sorting would be recommended. After that, the plastics
follow the PRFs process mechanisms and the recyclates (processed re-
covered material) are then sold to recycling companies or kept for in-
house production (e.g. Doha Recycling uses some of the recovered plas-
tic for internal production, whereas Twyla sells the plastic granules to
local or overseas recyclers.
 J.N. Hahladakis, H.M.S.J. Aljabri / Science of the Total Environment 653 (2019) 294–299 297

Fig. 3. Graphical representation of BM 1.

(Redrawn from source: QDB, 2017)

2.3.2. BM 2: sorting and trading of plastic waste
In BM 2, the collection of waste is performed by waste management
companies which collect scrap from industries, households, etc. Plastics
are then sorted and sold to trading companies which either further sort
the plastic waste per polymer type or immediately proceed to packing
and exporting it internationally. Should they wish to sell it in domestic
recovery facilities they have to sort it by polymer type; otherwise the
local companies will prefer buying it from the trading companies since
recovery facilities can directly collect unsorted plastic waste from the
waste management companies.
2.4. The economic and environmental benefits of recovering and recycling
plastics; the single use plastic bottle infographic
In order to incentivise and awaken more people (experts or not) into
adopting and implementing a “green” attitude, it would be wise to elab-
orate more thoroughly the benefits (both economic, as well as environ-
mental) gained via the sustainable use of plastic materials and the
savings that a conscious waste-hierarchy followed behaviour could
bring (European Commission, 2008; Gharfalkar et al., 2015). A PET
bottle is usually designed with the intention of a single-use, meaning
it is discarded soon after its use. After its disposal, it goes through a se-
ries of processes (collection, management, recovery, recycling) with
recycling being the final and intentional stage.
However, in Qatar a large portion of these plastics ends up in land-
fills, not taking into account all the revenues (shown in Fig. 5) gained
if the local entities had managed to recover and recycle all these quan-
tities of the landfilled plastics. Energy loss, reduction in energy con-
sumption and land saving are just a few of the benefits gained from
recovering plastic bottles, as depicted in Fig. 5. Even if a “closed loop”
recycling is not feasible due to the various technicalities already men-
tioned (Hahladakis and Iacovidou, 2018), one cannot underestimate
the secondary material gain obtained from manufacturing other prod-
ucts; such as construction and automotive, textiles, bin liners, landscap-
ing, refuse sacks, etc. (also known in literature as “cascaded” recycling or
downcycling) (WRAP, 2018).
2.5. SWOT description on Qatar's plastics recovery market
Given the aforementioned discussion, a SWOT description on Qatar's
plastics recovery market and recycling routes is provided in Fig. 6. In

Fig. 4. Graphical representation of BM 2.

(Redrawn from source: QDB, 2017)
298 J.N. Hahladakis, H.M.S.J. Aljabri / Science of the Total Environment 653 (2019) 294–299
Fig. 5. Benefits gained from the recovery of plastic bottles; the single use PET bottle
infographic.
summary, it can be easily inferred that plastic waste is available for ex-
ploitation in Qatar, but still not readily accessible due to lack of proper
source segregation and widely available waste management infrastruc-
ture in the country. The domestic recovery facilities need to get into
long-term contracts with commercial entities to collect segregated
waste, whereas PRFs present ample opportunities to recover and sell
Fig. 6. SWOT description of plastic recovery routes in Qatar.
plastic pellets locally or internationally. The establishment of new PRF
units would, also, be most welcome in the country.
3. Conclusions
The present research has focused on delineating the plastic recovery
status currently existing and operating in the State of Qatar. The main
conclusions drawn from this work are listed below:
1) Plastic waste in Qatar is mostly found as part of the MSW generated
in the country and is collected by the recovery facilities either via the
waste management companies or directly via the commercial enti-
ties operating in the country.
2) According to future projections done by MDPS and QDB and based
on the anticipated increase of the population, plastic waste is ex-
pected to witness an increment on the current amount, of approx.
20,000 tonnes by the year 2025.
3) Currently there is a lack of appropriate sorting and segregation units
(equipment) that restricts the recovery of plastic, thereby requiring
further manual sorting per type of polymer.
4) The demand for recovered plastic in Qatar is expected to grow and
setting up a new PRF unit in the country does not require either
much effort or high capital. This presents, therefore, an opportunity
for more recovery facilities to be established in the country in the
near future, given that only 3–4 major units are currently operating,
with the involvement of several other, but significantly smaller,
companies.
As it can be inferred, plastics recovery and recyclability is affected by
a web of different facets, occurring at different parts of the supply chain,
being dealt in different ways, at different parts of the world. The authors'
intended goal is to communicate that a multi-dimensional appraisal of
the system as a whole, and of the changes/interventions that are often
introduced in dealing with the low rates of plastic recycling, needs to
be carried out in order for a sustainable development to occur.
To the authors' best knowledge, the existing academic literature on
the plastic recovery and recycling status in Qatar is rather limited
(Bello, 2018; Clarke and Almannai, 2014; Clarke et al., 2017). The pres-
ent work is merely a first step towards this direction; given also that
plastics are now at the top of the world's agenda, (taking into account
the CE concept and all the various issues that surround it), constitute
 J.N. Hahladakis, H.M.S.J. Aljabri / Science of the Total Environment 653 (2019) 294–299
facts which solidify the significance of this research and highlight the
need for further future investigation.
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